Virtual symposium to focus on how Catholic social teaching addresses issues around voting, racism and more 

St. Mary’s University and its Center for Catholic Studies will host the Crossroads Symposium on Faith and Politics at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21. The virtual evening symposium will focus on how Catholic social teaching addresses the issues of today, including voting, social injustice, racism and COVID-19. 

“Catholic universities are the place where the Church does its thinking. The Crossroads Symposium is an opportunity for St. Mary’s University to consider difficult issues of the times through the lens of faith in search of the truth and the common good,” said Alicia Cordoba Tait, D.M.A., Beirne Director of the Center for Catholic Studies and Professor of Music. 

Panelists will host a discussion on what voters should consider or bring into the voting booth when voting one’s conscience — how faith can ground racial activism, how the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s changed the fight for social and racial justice, how the Church’s involvement has changed in today’s fight for social and racial justice, and how the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic reflects social and racial injustices in health care and politics.

The virtual symposium will be moderated by St. Mary’s President Thomas M. Mengler, J.D., and feature the following panelists: 

  • Shirley Gonzales (B.B.A. ’95, M.B.A. ’00), San Antonio City Council District 5  
  • Elizabeth Lutz, executive director of the Health Collaborative 
  • Steve O’Neil, S.M., St. Mary’s University faculty member who served at both the U.N. for the Marianist nongovernmental organization and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility 
  • Pastor Don Page (B.A. ’86), of Faith Community Baptist Church in San Antonio 
  • Vincent D. Rougeau, Boston College Law Dean; president-elect of the Association of American Law Schools, and former articles editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal 

Register in advance for this free Zoom event. 

More about the Crossroads Symposium 

The Crossroads Symposium is a free, annual lecture series featuring men and women who have shaped the Catholic Intellectual Tradition — a tradition at the heart of the educational enterprises at St. Mary’s University. 

The symposium topics focus on the impact of faith on everyday life, witnessing to those who through their own critical reflection in scholarly discourse bring a diverse perspective to pressing issues of the day, particularly those concerning faith and culture, social justice and injustice, issues that particularly concern the local Church and greater southwest Texas. 

Each symposium balances faith and reason, in dialogue between faculty scholars and Church leadership who hold different, even contrary views, to help us better navigate through the issues and to provide considerations for support and future change. The symposium is one of the cornerstones of the Center for Catholic Studies. 

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